A shocking disregard for rights

Published: Wednesday, May 15, 2013 at 4:30 a.m.

Last Modified: Tuesday, May 14, 2013 at 6:02 p.m.

There is no excuse for the Justice Department bypassing the courts to secretly seize two months of phone records for reporters and editors of The Associated Press. It is an unconscionable violation of the news organization’s First Amendment rights to gather and report the news.

The Justice Department informed AP on Friday that authorities had obtained records for more than 20 telephone lines of its offices and journalists, including their home phones and cellphones. The records were seized without prior notice.

AP was not told the reason for the seizure. But the timing and the journalistic targets suggest they are related to a continuing government investigation into the leaking of information about a terrorist plot a year ago, The New York Times reported. On May 7, 2012, AP reported that the Central Intelligence Agency had disrupted a Yemen-based terrorist plot to bomb an airliner. AP had held off publishing it for several days at the White House’s request because the intelligence operations were still unfolding.

In an angry letter to Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. on Monday, AP President and CEO Gary Pruitt called the seizure a “massive and unprecedented intrusion” into its news-gathering activities. “There can be no possible justification” for the Justice Department collecting records so broadly, he said.

“These records potentially reveal communications with confidential sources across all of the news-gathering activities undertaken by AP during a two-month period, provide a road map to AP’s news-gathering operations, and disclose information about AP’s activities and operations that the government has no conceivable right to know,” Pruitt stated.

This assault on the nation’s pre-eminent news organization raises serious questions about what other constitutional rights the Justice Department may be secretly violating. It makes us wonder whether Holder is a renegade who has mistaken the Bill of Rights for a “Bill of Suggestions.”

The scandal represents the latest collision of news organizations and federal investigators over government efforts to prevent disclosure of national security information, and it comes against a backdrop of an aggressive policy by the Obama administration to rein in leaks, the Times reports. Under President Barack Obama, six current and former government officials have been indicted in leak-related cases so far, twice the number under all previous administrations combined.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said the White House was not involved in the subpoena. “We are not involved in decisions made in connection with criminal investigations, as those matters are handled independently by the Justice Department,” he said.

Before the news broke Monday, Obama spent part of a news conference trying to deflate a lingering scandal about last year’s terrorist attack on the U.S. Embassy in Libya, and expressing outrage over news the IRS has targeted conservative groups for extra scrutiny.

When the president penned his memoir, “The Audacity of Hope,” surely this was not the kind of audacity he was talking about. The president and Holder have a lot of explaining to do, but it is hard to imagine any justification for such a blatant trampling of fundamental rights.

<p>There is no excuse for the Justice Department bypassing the courts to secretly seize two months of phone records for reporters and editors of The Associated Press. It is an unconscionable violation of the news organization’s First Amendment rights to gather and report the news.</p><p>The Justice Department informed AP on Friday that authorities had obtained records for more than 20 telephone lines of its offices and journalists, including their home phones and cellphones. The records were seized without prior notice.</p><p>AP was not told the reason for the seizure. But the timing and the journalistic targets suggest they are related to a continuing government investigation into the leaking of information about a terrorist plot a year ago, The New York Times reported. On May 7, 2012, AP reported that the Central Intelligence Agency had disrupted a Yemen-based terrorist plot to bomb an airliner. AP had held off publishing it for several days at the White House’s request because the intelligence operations were still unfolding.</p><p>In an angry letter to Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. on Monday, AP President and CEO Gary Pruitt called the seizure a massive and unprecedented intrusion into its news-gathering activities. There can be no possible justification for the Justice Department collecting records so broadly, he said.</p><p>These records potentially reveal communications with confidential sources across all of the news-gathering activities undertaken by AP during a two-month period, provide a road map to AP’s news-gathering operations, and disclose information about AP’s activities and operations that the government has no conceivable right to know, Pruitt stated.</p><p>This assault on the nation’s pre-eminent news organization raises serious questions about what other constitutional rights the Justice Department may be secretly violating. It makes us wonder whether Holder is a renegade who has mistaken the Bill of Rights for a Bill of Suggestions.</p><p>The scandal represents the latest collision of news organizations and federal investigators over government efforts to prevent disclosure of national security information, and it comes against a backdrop of an aggressive policy by the Obama administration to rein in leaks, the Times reports. Under President Barack Obama, six current and former government officials have been indicted in leak-related cases so far, twice the number under all previous administrations combined.</p><p>White House spokesman Jay Carney said the White House was not involved in the subpoena. We are not involved in decisions made in connection with criminal investigations, as those matters are handled independently by the Justice Department, he said.</p><p>Before the news broke Monday, Obama spent part of a news conference trying to deflate a lingering scandal about last year’s terrorist attack on the U.S. Embassy in Libya, and expressing outrage over news the IRS has targeted conservative groups for extra scrutiny.</p><p>When the president penned his memoir, The Audacity of Hope, surely this was not the kind of audacity he was talking about. The president and Holder have a lot of explaining to do, but it is hard to imagine any justification for such a blatant trampling of fundamental rights.</p>